Super-cute cookies and felt

Super-Cute Felt, written by Laura Howard, really lives up to its name, as I found myself oohing and awwing over all of the adorable and brightly colored projects. It is an especially attractive concept because felt is such an easy material to work with since it doesn’t fray, plus it comes in all kinds of shades for any idea you might have.

I liked how all of the projects in Super-Cute Felt only use simple hand-sewing stitches (instructions are provided if you are new to hand sewing). That makes it easy to bring them anywhere and spend a little time working on them whenever you have a few minutes to spare. To create the fun ideas in Super-Cute Felt, each step has an associated color illustration along with clear directions to help you easily accomplish the task. Some of the ideas are small and fast to make, even for beginners or children. For the experienced seamstress or those looking for a more involved craft, there are many projects that are a little more elaborate, but offer the satisfaction of a job well done when finished.

There are several categories of felt crafts in Super-Cute Felt, including Accessories, Gifts, Homewares and Celebrations, each of them with absolutely darling ideas. Whether it’s a Kitty Purse or Hedgehog Case to hold your cell phone, these simple, yet eye catching, designs will definitely get noticed. The Lovebirds Mobile would be a charming and original gift to give as a present for a new baby. The author suggests making the Butterfly and Flower hair combs for the ladies in a wedding party. The pastel colored Tea Cozy has colorful cupcakes and cookies placed on a retro cake stand and fits perfectly over your family teapot. My favorite felt treat was the Gingerbread Cookie Garland, which looks almost edible with its gingerbread “cookies”, white felt frosting and silver beads. The delightful cookies are sewn on to a red gingham ribbon which is embellished with little jingle bells.

Super-Cute Felt is a very enjoyable book full of striking and fun ideas for the whole year!

About the Author:
Laura ‘Lupin’ Howard is completely obsessed with felt and set up her online store Lupin Handmade in 2007 (lupinhandmade.com), selling a range of adorable felt brooches, flower headbands, animal masks and other fun stuff. All her felt-works are 100% hand-stitched, and all the pieces are cut by hand from her own original patterns. She uses no mechanized cutters, sewing machines or glue – everything is literally handmade. Her work has been featured in a number of magazines, including Cloth, Metro, Vogue and Sew Hip.

Super Cute Cookies, written by Chloe Coker, is overflowing with wonderful ideas for decorating show-stopping cookies. There are cookie ideas for every occasion, and Super Cute Cookies even explains how to use your own creativity to design unique cutters and templates. Tips for making Successful Cookies, as well as several proven cookie dough recipes are included, in addition to icing recipes and instructions for skills like transferring designs and adding sparkle to your cookies.

The expertise level for the cookie decorating ranges from the simple (polka dot balloons!) to the more complex, like the Flower Corsages, so perfect for a wedding! Super Cute Cookies states that the 3-D Blossom and Butterflies are “inspired by…Japanese porcelain” and they certainly live up to it. The festive Cookie Bunting is not only a lovely decoration, but it’s edible, too, making it extra fun! I just adored the square cookies iced Tiffany blue and topped with a white bow — and the diamond ring cookies that accompany them! The Holiday cookie section has gorgeous Christmas cookies like aqua and red ornaments, beautiful Christmas Puddings, stunning white decorated Christmas trees, and other holiday favorites.

Whether you want to create cookies for Celebrations, Gifts, Holidays, Children or Weddings, Super Cute Cookies has excellent suggestions to help make those occasions extra special.

About the Author:
Chloe Coker has been baking ever since she could climb on a chair as a little girl and reach the kitchen worktop. A languages degree from Oxford University and a career in the law took her a long way from the kitchen but her enthusiasm for cooking always remained. She eventually decided to turn her passion for cooking into a profession and left the law to train as a chef at Leiths School of Food and Wine. Chloe now runs her own cake and catering company and teaches cupcake and cookie decorating.